As the North American Free Trade Agreement negotiations unfold, there is a lot of loose talk being exchanged about automobile parts going back and forth among the United States, Canada and Mexico. NAFTA supporters assert that the U.S. content in cars assembled in Canada and Mexico is particularly high and that therefore our $70 billion-plus trade deficits with our NAFTA partners are not worrisome.

That would be a great argument if it were correct. But it isn’t. That argument is neither true of motor vehicles nor of manufactured goods in general.

A study to be released Friday by Anne Flatness and Chris Rasmussen of the Office of Trade and Economic Analysis within the Commerce Department proves its falsity. The study, based on Trade in Value Added data recently released by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, shows that between 1995, the year after NAFTA went into effect, and 2011, U.S. content of manufactured goods imported from Canada dropped significantly — from 21 percent to 15 percent. U.S. content in goods imported from Mexico fell even more — from 26 percent to 16 percent. The data is available only until 2011, but there is no reason to think that the situation has improved since then.

Thousands of economic migrants are currently sitting on the U.S. border after traveling as a political group together through Mexico. The “caravan” is just the most visible example of Hondurans, Guatemalans, and El Salvadorans trying in record numbers to illegally enter the U.S., waving Honduran and Guatemalan flags, while they claim a “right” to invade our country. Our failure to secure our southern border has very real, concerning implications for our nation’s security.

To begin, we know MS-13 gang members are there. Regardless of whether this particular caravan of economic migrants contains a terrorist contingent, it still highlights to those who are interested in hurting the U.S. that our laws can be flaunted and that illegal entry into the U.S. is easy. It’s clear this message is spreading: As rumors of possible amnesty spread this past fall, Border Patrol reported a surge in illegal crossings. It’s clear that our border policies are encouraging lawbreaking. From 2009-2016, the number of aliens claiming credible fear skyrocketed from 5,000 to 94,000 in 2016, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

Here is someone with the money to fund a rebuttal to what Howard Dean, Democratic National Committee Chairman, said that many Republican have never done an honest day's work in their life. The following full page ad was placed in the Washington Post by a businessman named George J. Esseff, Sr. He paid $104,655.60 to run the ad and only did it because he is sick and tired of the way that "the rich" are portrayed by liberals these days. NOTE: We are running this editorial at no charge.

In today's America ask a growing number of high school and college students, their teachers and professors, the self-anointed media elite and/or hard working men and women of all ethnicities, the question, "What ! is a Republican?" and you'll be told "... a rich, greedy, egotistical individual, motivated only by money and the desire to accumulate more and more of it, at the expense of the environment, the working poor....and all whom they exploit..."

I am a Republican - And I am none of those things...and I don't know any Republicans who are!

WHAT I AM first and foremost, is a loving husband of some 52 plus years, the father of four and an American who's proud of his country...and his country's heritage

WHAT I AM is the grandson of immigrants who risked everything, including their lives and those of their children, to escape tyranny in search of freedom.

In September 2016, when then-Republican presidential primary candidate Donald J. Trump called for a national paid family leave plan, pundits called it “a striking departure from GOP orthodoxy.” Indeed it was.

But over the past 21 months, we have witnessed conservatives building a majority in support of this important policy.

In conversations with members of the GOP, there is burgeoning agreement on the intrinsically conservative nature of a national paid family leave plan.

Social conservatives underscore paid leave as a way to forge more tightly bonded families and protect infants and parents at their most vulnerable.

“It comes down to the Rule of the Law. While there were some strong components for the Securing America’s Future Act, I ultimately can’t support any type of legislation that provides amnesty. Providing any lawful or legal status to DACA recipients that allows them to stay in the country and work is the definition of amnesty as they are being granted an official pardon from breaking the law. Doing so is a slap in the face to the millions of people who have respected our immigration process and have waited their turn to come to this country. Equal application of the law, in addition to the God-given rights protected by our Constitution, are perhaps the main attractions for those who wish to immigrate to our great country and two of the main reasons we are the greatest nation in the world. DACA’s promulgation by the Obama Administration violated the Administrative Procedure Act, the Immigration and Nationality Act and the Constitution. In fact, even President Obama consistently stated during his first six years in office that he did not have the legal authority to take executive action on immigration for DACA recipients. By acting outside of its constitutional power, the Obama Administration attempted to circumvent Congress’ Article 1, Section 8, Clause 4 and purported to make law without the Constitutional authority for doing so. Granting any type of legal status to DACA recipients or Dreamers is amnesty, makes them a privileged class and puts them on the path to citizenship.

President Trump is once again keeping his promises with a 2019 budget that sets forth an aggressive strategy to keep this country safe, promote economic growth, and curb wasteful Washington spending.

It includes a visionary plan to rebuild our nation’s crumbling infrastructure. President Trump’s bold leadership will remove unnecessary bureaucratic barriers that stand in the way of new projects, and leverage $200 billion in Federal funds to spur over $1.5 trillion in investment across urban and rural America.